Legend of Zelda: Twist of Fate
by DaemonSol
Summary: A female Link and a web of deception that surrounds her. This is an original Legend of Zelda fanfiction taking place in the future of the Child Timeline, about a thousand years after Twilight Princess.
1. Prologue

A sharp, ringing slap woke up Link with a start. Tears welling in her eyes as her cheek felt like fire, she quickly looks around. She was bound with her hands held above her in some dark, dank dungeon. She could hear the patter of tiny rat feet at a distance and the dripping of a leaky pipe somewhere. And in front of her was the man who just slapped her. He was tall, pale, and middle-aged. He had a few wrinkles on his face and his black hair was edged with gray. His eyes were a steely black, like coal. They seemed almost lifeless, if they hadn't been filled with hate.

"Where am I? Why am I here?" Link asked, her voice only trembling slightly. She gritted her teeth and stared hard into the man's eyes, trying to show no fear.

"You are not the one asking questions tonight. You will not speak unless answering one of _my_ questions." The man said, pausing for a moment to make sure Link understood.

Link repressed a shudder as she thought about how the man's voice was cold and lifeless. She had never met a murderer or anything like that, but she could tell somehow that for this man, killing was second nature and taking her life would be like making tea for afternoon biscuits. Which fit considering he had the appearance of a butler. If not for his eyes, Link would have sworn that he was the butler for some high noble. Feeling a throb on the back of her head, Link tried to remember how she even got here, but was interrupted when the man next spoke.

"Good." He said, a small smile crossing his pale face. "Now, you will tell me everything you know about the mark on the back of your hand. The Triangle."

"What?" Link asked, genuinely confused. The mark on her hand?

The smile quickly disappeared from the man's face and his hand lashed out again, slapping Link across her other cheek. "I asked you a very clear, very simple question. What do you know about the triangular mark on the back of your hand?"

"I-it's a birthmark, I swear! I don't know what you want to hear!" Link said frantically as her other cheek started to burn with pain.

The man stared hard at her, his eyes drilling into hers. After a moment, he would nod, apparently understanding something Link didn't. He would turn on his heel and leave the cell, shutting the bars and locking the door. As he pocketed the key, he said, "Do not blame me for your fate, young Link. Blame the cruel whims of fate that gave you that mark. Because of it, you will rot in this cell for the rest of your natural life, just so you won't interfere in my plans, in this life, or the next."

He turned then, and walked away, nodding at the guard outside the cell as he left. Link could hear his echoing steps as he got further away. Link's fists clenched in anger and frustration and confusion. What the hell was happening? What the hell did the mark on her hand have to do with _anything_? Slumping in her bindings, she tried to search her memories. Ignoring the pain on the back of her head, Link tried to focus, to remember what had happened that lead her here.


	2. Chapter 1: A Change of Pace

The wooden sword was swinging in towards Link's left leg. Link deftly parried the strike and tried to stab at Lance's right shoulder with her own sword. With a twist Lance dodged, spinning into a horizontal slash that forced Link to jump back before charging in again with a fast overhead slash. Lance seems to just barely deflect the blow aside, and just barely block the follow-up attack. Link is feeling confident today. She never manages to get Lance to defend this much, normally she's the one defending. Maybe, just maybe, today will be the day. Grabbing her sword with both hands she quickly thrusts forward and tries to whip her sword sideways to catch Lance as he dodges, but in a flash something happened. The next thing she knew, she was on her back on the floor, a slight pain in her wrist and shoulder, and feeling slightly dazed.

"Do you know what happened just now Link?" Lance asked, his voice calm and friendly, as always. It was something she liked about him, that he never got arrogant. He was always helpful and trying to teach rather than show off his skills.

Sitting up and rubbing her sword arm, Link thought for a moment about what had just happened, tried to recall every detail of the last five seconds of the sparring match. She had thrust her sword, Lance had dodged, as planned. Link whipped her sword sideways…or tried to at least. In the moment after her stab, Lance hadn't dodged purely sideways, but was moving towards Link as well, his off-hand coming off his sword and grabbing Link's left wrist, pinching it in that perfect way that made Link let go of her sword, and skillfully stepping into her zone and throwing her, all in such a short moment, she hadn't grasped what had happened.

"Well?"

"I tried to use a move on you that you taught me yourself." Link said dryly, knowing exactly where she went wrong. It was not in the execution of the move, which she would have done perfectly. It was using the right move on the wrong person.

"Exactly." Lance's hand appeared in front of Link, an offer to help her up which she accepted. After pulling her up, Lance continued. "I promise you though, if you had used that move on someone else, who wasn't waiting for it, it would have worked."

"Maybe, I won't know for sure until I try it on someone else." Link said, dusting herself off. Taking a break in their sparring, Link looked around at her school. It was the High Academy of Swordsmanship, a prestigious institution for those wanting to join the Royal Army. Located in the city of New Hyrule, it was just a couple streets away from the main gate of Castle Hyrule. There were rumors that the school was due for an overhaul though, despite its fame. But this was because of the advancement of technology. Gunpowder and Crystal Magic weaponry was becoming more useful and becoming easier to mass produce. The fact that people can fight from a distance was heralding the end of swordsmanship, though the school and the Royal Army stubbornly clung to tradition. Even if the Royal Knights now needed to learn how to load and shoot a flintlock rifle, or use a Crystal Amulet's Spell, swordsmanship was still prized for its many virtues of honor, skill, and general fitness. Plus Link always loved the feel of a sword in her hand.

"You know, my offer is still standing for personal lessons, Link." Lance said, pulling Link's mind back to the present. Smiling, she looked at Lance and shook her head.

"Sorry, you know I don't have time for lessons outside of class." She gently let him down. Truthfully she did have a little free time, she could take up some extra lessons, but she knew the real reason Lance wanted to be alone with her. But she wasn't interested in courting at the moment. She needed to stay focused on her goal, to be the first non-Gerudo woman in the Royal Army in over a hundred years. As it was, she was the only woman in the academy at the moment. But that was partially the fault of the head instructor.

"Attention boys!" An old, sharp voice called out. "Line up!"

The master of the school had called out. Master Byrnwuld was an old-fashioned man who believed that men were warriors and women were homemakers, only suited for bearing children and cooking food. As such, he had a habit of always saying "boys" or "men" when calling for his students, explicitly excluding Link as the only girl. He was somewhat hostile to any girls who tried to enter his school, generally forcing them to quit. He justified his behavior by saying that since girls were inherently weaker, he had to work them harder to bring them up to the minimum standards of the boys. Link was the first girl to ever endure and make it to her senior year. She almost wanted to thank Master Byrnwuld, because the harshness of her training made her far better than the other students her age. She already defeated several of the Junior Instructors in sparring, with Lance being one of the few she couldn't yet defeat. There was no doubt in her mind that she would get accepted into the Royal Army.

Link hurried and took her place in line, ignoring the glare from Byrnwuld. She was at the far end of the line-up, in the spot usually reserved for the worst student in the school, Master's orders. She took it in stride though, grinning because it was just a joke for her.

"Today we have an officer from the Royal Army come to inspect this year's candidates for entry." Master Byrnwuld spoke to the men at the other end of the line, where the supposed best students stood. Link could barely hear him with about a hundred students distance between him and her, but her ears had grown sharp over the years, so she could make out what he was saying, even over the quiet whisperings of the lower students who didn't care about graduation yet. Link felt a tremor of excitement that it was almost time for her entry into the army.

"He'll be here shortly and at that time I'll have my best students come forth and show your skills by sparring with each other. Do me proud lads."

The twenty-odd students at the other end of the line all answered with a prompt and loud "SIR!"

At that time the door at the far end of the dojo opened and everyone looked and watched as a dark-skinned woman strode in and headed straight for Byrnwuld. Her walk was crisp and sharp, and Link quickly saw that she wore an officer's uniform, with many shiny badges and medals on her chest. Her fiery red hair, cropped short in a military cut, and piercing yellow eyes made Link think she looked rather badass. Link briefly thought to herself that Gerudo don't technically count since their race was 98% women anyway. Once Link is in the Army she'll be the first Hylian woman in a hundred years to get in. Still she could already feel an admiration for the officer, being a woman in the army couldn't be easy. Glancing down the line Link saw a stunned look on Byrnwuld's face that brought glee to Link, the Master hadn't expected a woman. Looking back at the Gerudo, Link saw her yellow eyes staring straight at her, a curious look on her face. Quickly the woman looked away and soon arrived next to Byrnwuld.

"Colonel Naboora, reporting for the inspection of potential Royal Army candidates." The woman spoke to Byrnwuld after snapping a smart salute. Composing himself somewhat, Byrnwuld would talk back.

"Colonel? I thought…never mind. Welcome to my Academy." Byrnwuld was clearly annoyed that a woman had come to inspect, and even more annoyed that any woman could be an officer. Turning he made a quick hand motion for his students to step forward, and they all did so. "These are my twenty-five best students. They are my recommendation for the Army. If you'll let me, I'll pair them up for sparring to let you see their skills."

Naboora nodded sharply saying, "Do so. But save your best and bring him to me."

Byrnwuld smiled. It was common practice for the inspecting officer to spar against the top student personally, measuring their skills and later interviewing them for potential officer placement. And judging by the look on his face, Byrnwuld fully expected his student to easily defeat the woman. With a motion, Byrnwuld called his student over.

"This is Viscen, my finest student. He'll be sparring with you today." He said smugly. His smile faltered however when he saw the equally smug smile on Naboora's face.

"No, I'm thinking he will fight…the girl at the end of the line." The officer said, turning and looking straight at Link. All the students in between the two women turned and stared wide-eyed at Link, though some didn't look too surprised. It made somewhat sense that the officer would notice Link being the only girl, and would be interested. But she was at the end of the line, the spot reserved for the most failing student. Quickly composing herself, Link strode forward, not even waiting for Byrnwuld to motion her over, she doubted he ever would. Standing in front of the Gerudo woman, she stood at attention and waited for orders, trying hard to suppress her own smile.

"What is your name, girl?" Naboora asked.

"Link, Ma'am." Link had to resist the urge to say more than was necessary. She knew she was the best student, but she also knew that the Army respected humility.

"Why are you placed at the end of the line?" She asked, her eyes saying she knew the answer, but wanted Link to say it aloud.

Link hesitated though, glancing at her instructor. This was something of a crossroads. If she said the truth, the instructor would likely kick her out of the school, and her only hope would be to impress the officer directly and get recruited on her recommendation. She would have to be perfect in her display of skills.

"I'm at the end of the line because Master Byrnwuld is chauvinistic and thinks that the strongest woman is weaker than the weakest man." Link's voice as she declared the truth rang clearly through the entire gym. She could hear many of the students behind her gasping in surprise.

"I see. In that case, let's see how the woman fairs against the strongest man, shall we? If that belief is true, you should be easily defeated." Naboora said, smiling mischievously as she stepped aside, giving Link and Viscen room to spar.

Link glanced over at Byrnwuld, who was glaring at her, yet there was a smile on his face. He no longer had to hide his dislike of Link. Stepping over to Viscen, he whispered something in his ear before stepping away. Reading his lips it seemed like he told Viscen to destroy her, so the look of disgust on Viscen's face wasn't a surprise. Link knew and sparred against Viscen all the time. She knew he was a nice guy, and a hard worker. She honestly respected him and hoped that he would get into the Army as well. But she needed to prove herself, so she wasn't holding back. She pulled out her wooden sword and readied herself as Viscen did the same. They nodded at each other, knowing that neither would hold back. Their current win-loss record was at 87-75 in Link's favor. Link knew she was better than him in terms of strength and technique, but he still won quite often because he knew a larger number of techniques than her, thanks to Byrnwuld's personal tutelage. Just because Link could swing a sword better than him, didn't mean he didn't know a dozen counters. His style was generally one of defense, waiting for the right opportunity to counter. This was actually a fair fight.

They reached their swords forward and tapped them together, signaling the start of the match. They had barely tapped when Link and Viscen's swords collided down low. Link had opted for a swift start, having immediately gone for a leg strike, which Viscen had predicted and blocked. Bouncing off the impact Link twirled her sword into an over-head strike at his sword arm, which was parried. Over the next couple seconds Link's sword flew furiously between them and Viscen's responded in kind, blocking all attacks and attempting some of his own. This was how spars between them usually went, though not normally at this speed or intensity. After a few seconds of clashing, they backed off and stared at each other, staying perfectly still as they measured each other. Neither was out of breath despite how hard they were just going at it. Link grinned though. She loved the fact that she was left-handed, it always threw her opponents off in their defense, though Viscen and most of the students here had somewhat adapted. Viscen was in top form today, and so was she.

Both Viscen and Link moved at the same time during the next clash, though they both slowed down a bit. They were carefully aiming their strikes at places they knew the other to be weak at defending, aiming at spots of old injuries and generally putting on a masterful display of swordsmanship. A small part of Link's mind noted that it felt more like they were dancing that fighting, but she quickly put the thought aside and focused on Viscen's blade. After about five minutes of clashing with sweat now dripping off of them and their swords feeling heavy, Link suddenly changed pace. Following the flow of their fight, Link was going to do a quick side-slash before blocking Viscen's attack, but instead she jumped back as she swung her sword. The swing was to make Viscen instinctively block while the jump made sure it missed. Following the momentum of the missed swing and bouncing off her heels, Link jumped, bringing her sword around the side, up, and into an over-head slash while Viscen was off-balance from blocking air. He barely had enough time to bring his sword up as Link came down, blocking the attack. But the force behind Link's attack, and the extended abuse the swords had taken caused them both to shatter at the impact, pelting both of them with shards of wood.

Link and Viscen stood there then, both slightly stunned. No wooden sword had ever broken in the dojo before, as they were built to last and were replaced every month, well before such wear would actually affect them. A chuckle from Viscen brought Link out of her amazement.

"I always knew these swords were too weak for you, Link." He said humbly, standing up and brushing splinters off of himself. His sword arm twitched though, and he quickly grabbed his shoulder with a look of annoyance. "Seems I was defeated. Even if our swords hadn't broken, my arm would have given out. I concede to your skill, Link."

Viscen winked at Link and turned to Naboora, with Link quick to do the same. The Gerudo officer had no look on her face to say whether she was impressed or disappointed. Byrnwuld however looked furious. Link knew he had expected Viscen to win, having always stated every single time that he lost that Viscen was merely holding back because Link was a girl. There was no doubt now, Link was better.

"It seems to me, that if Viscen here was your best student, then Link here was either misplaced in line, you misjudged her abilities, or you're being like she said, chauvinistic." Naboora spoke harshly, giving Byrnwuld no room for redemption. The Gerudo woman turned back to the two students, and spoke to them, Viscen first.

"You, Viscen, show a fine tactical mind. You stayed focused and knew the limits and abilities of both you and your opponent. Your skill is very refined and I can see that you have a large repertoire of combat knowledge. You will make a fine officer in the army. And your genuine humility is nice too." She said, smiling at Viscen. She then spoke to Link.

"You, Link, show great natural talent. The sword moves naturally in your hand. It is clearly an extension of yourself. However, even though I recognize the environment you're in, being a woman in a man's society, your eagerness to prove yourself is dangerous. Just now you nearly broke Viscen's arm, and if you had he would have become useless as a warrior, ending his career before it could begin. I would like to enter you as an officer, but I'll have to take into account your maturity first. You definitely have my recommendation though, and will join the Royal Army one way or another, and I know you'll go far."

Turning, Naboora spoke to Byrnwuld.

"I've seen what I needed to see. Including the rest of you. I already know all your names and relative skill levels before I even came here today. Today was just a formality and exhibition. Fifteen of you will receive invitations to join the Royal Army in a week, five as officers. The rest, while skilled, are not up to the standards we currently require of our soldiers. I take my leave now."

With a salute, Naboora turned and left with the same sharp movements as when she entered. Never did Link ever see someone so strict and powerful in the way they held themselves. She felt like she had a hero to look up to now, even as she felt disappointed that she might not be an officer right away. Turning to the Master, she was about to speak when he cut her off, yelling at her.

"Out of my dojo, Link! You are not welcome here anymore!"

Link blinked, surprised by the outburst from Byrnwuld, who'd always managed to keep his composure in the past. With a smirk, Link felt free to speak her mind.

"I don't believe I was ever welcome here. I'll be glad to take my leave of you." She said, no longer having false respect in her voice. Turning to Viscen she said, "Thanks for the match. Sorry about going too far."

"It's fine, Link. I understand. I wish you luck."

"You too."

Link turned and strode to the showers, a smile on her face. She was going to join the Royal Army!


	3. Chapter 2: An Unfortunate Event

Chapter 2

Link had just gotten to the street when Lance caught up to her. She heard his footsteps as he ran after her. Unlike Link, who just showered and left, Lance had to help the other instructors clean up the dojo and say goodbye to the students before he left, putting him a couple minutes behind Link. She had held up though, knowing he would want to chat with her. She turned and smiled at him as he came to a stop.

"I can hardly believe that just happened." He said, looking bewildered.

"Well it did and I'm glad." Link says, looking and feeling exultant. "I should have told that pig off years ago."

"Maybe." Lance said thoughtfully. "But if you had told him before today, that officer wouldn't have seen you and you would never be able to get into the army."

"Ah, true." She said with a chuckle, admitting that Lance was right. "I guess I had to tolerate that ass just long enough to meet Naboora. But for now…"

Link looked up at the clock tower at the center of town, visible from most places in the city. She was leaving the dojo about thirty minutes earlier than expected but;

"I need to get to work." She said, again smiling. Lance's eyebrows rose at the sight, normally when Link mentions work, she's in a bad mood about it. "It'll be nice not having less than five minutes to run from the dojo to the pub."

"Ah, that's why you're grinning. But don't you hate that job." Lance asked, understanding somewhat why she smiled.

"Of course, but I just found out I don't have to tolerate it much longer."

"Right, you're joining the Royal Army!" Lance said, laughing as he slapped her on the back. He really felt happy for her; though he knew he would miss her now that she wasn't going to come to the dojo anymore. A sad look briefly crossed his face which Link didn't see. It passed before Link turned around to look at him again.

"Lance, look!" She said excitedly, pointing at a nearby window. Lance had to blink several times before he realized what he was looking at.

"Is that a Crystal Image Projector?!" He asked, incredulous. "I thought it was going to be another year before they could make those things household!"

"Me too. I guess Master Gaepora really is a genius. First he figures out how to tune a crystal to a specific spell, then he makes it possible to watch events through them. His promise of putting a Crystal Projector in every home is actually going to come true."

"I wonder why he even developed Crystal Magic; he can already cast magic naturally." Lance said. He'd always been skeptical of wizards and magic, even though he apparently had a lot of magic in his blood.

Over the past century, magic, which had always been strong in Hylians, was actively studied and an institute of magic was formed for those who had talent to learn. Instead of the days where wizards were mostly self-taught, they could learn from others and avoid mistakes because of it. In the past decade attempts had been made to better understand Hylians natural magical ability that was rarely actually utilized. It was now understood that there were two general variables, one was the magical potency of a person's blood, which determined their mana supply or the amount of magic a person could cast in a short amount of time, and their talent, a person's ability to access their mana intentionally and purposely form it into a spell. A person's mana could increase with training, but there was little a person could do if they lacked talent. Lance and Link were opposites in this regard. Lance had a lot of mana, but no talent, while Link had talent, but no mana. The advent of Crystal Magic would change things for people like Lance, letting them use their mana effectively, though Lance had no real interest.

"I heard that Gaepora started work on Crystal Magic because Princess Zelda asked." Link said. The princess was said to have a ridiculously large mana supply but almost no talent. So Zelda asked her uncle, the Royal Magician and brother of the Queen to give her the ability to do magic. While even Master Gaepora couldn't directly do anything to increase Zelda's talent, he eventually came up with an alternative.

"Heh, speaking of Princess Zelda, I heard she's announced that Hyrule's going to host the negotiations between the Gorons and the Zoras."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she's going to personally mediate the meeting."

"If anyone can prevent war between those guys, she can. Everyone loves her."

"The Gorons somewhat complained though that Hyrule can't be genuinely impartial."

"What? Why?"

"If the cleaning doesn't go well, the pollution could spread to Lake Hyrule, our main water supply."

"Oh, damn. But the Gorons are already doing their best to clean up aren't they."

"That hasn't stopped the Zoras from their complaining."

"Well their homes _are_ in danger thanks to the pollution; it's understandable that they're upset."

"I agree. The Gorons should have made better plans when they started building their factories and becoming industrious."

"Well the Gorons aren't really heavy thinkers, are they?"

"Hey, that's not nice."

"Sorry." Link laughed nervously. She didn't mean to say that, it was kind of racist. Because of their appearance and general demeanor, Gorons had to fight against the image that they were slow. One of the reasons for their rapid industrial expansion lately was to show their ability to think and create. Some of the Goron factory owners had gotten fairly rich because of their clever business plays. It was well known that the Goron who designed the Go-Carts, a steel vehicle moved by an odd fire-spewing engine, was really wealthy now, and when he visited New Hyrule to talk to the Queen a while back, he was treated like a Noble. Go-Carts had become somewhat common sights around the city lately, with large ones transporting various goods here and there, while rarely the smaller personal ones would be seen with an aristocrat out for an evening drive. Link wasn't really impressed though because none of them were faster than horses and they made an awful lot of noise.

"Are the Zoras still claiming that the Gorons did it intentionally, that they were trying to kill the Zoras?" Link asked, trying to divert from her offensive slip.

"Not officially, no. The Zora citizens still think so but the Zora King stopped making those allegations."

"How'd that happened?"

"Princess Zelda apparently talked at least some sense into the Zora King already."

"Ah. Well, with her taking care of the meeting, I predict a peaceful conclusion and a fair compromise."

The look on Lances' face said that he didn't entirely agree.

"What's wrong?"

"I've heard rumors."

"Of what?" Link asked, stopping and looking at Lance curiously.

"I've heard that the Gorons' mess might have been sabotage. Rumors are that Lord Fangor is trying to incite the war between the Gorons and Zoras. "

"What!?"

"Yeah, apparently the Gorons did make plans to safely take care of their waste. We Hyrulians have been industrial for ages, so of course they already knew about the dangers of pollution from our history. They were never going to dump their waste into the rivers, so the fact that it ended up there is suspicious. The reason the Zora King stopped making allegations of attempted murder is because Zelda apparently pointed this out to him. I've heard the real reason Zelda wants to hold the conference is so that she can talk to both races about what to do with Fangor."

"That's…wow…that's pretty intense. We've been on bad terms with New Hylia for years now, but…we might be going to war?"

"Maybe." Lance looked uncomfortable. Link had a guess why.

"Are you worried about me being in the army when the war happens?" She eyed him accusingly. She didn't want him trying to keep her away from her dream just because of a tiny war.

"What? You...Oh no, that's not what I was thinking." Lance said, seeming genuinely confused for a second, surprising Link that he hadn't been thinking about her. "I was just thinking that war with religious zealots never turns out well."

"Hm, that's true."

"The last war over religion destroyed Old Hyrule Town."

"Five hundred years and it's still an uninhabitable ruin."

Link and Lance's conversation started to die down as they came to Link's workplace, the Lon Lon Tavern. Link turned before they got to the front door, heading for the employee's entrance in the back while Lance would go in the front door and take a seat at the bar. As Link entered the door a voice rang out at her.

"Hi Link! You're ten minutes early today, what happened?"

Link turned and smiled at the cheerful coworker as she made her way to the changing room.

"Hey Malon, an officer of the army came today and said I'm going to join the army. I was finally able to tell Byrnwuld off and quit the school."

"Oh, well that's good news, your dream's coming true." Malon said with a grin. Suddenly putting on a girly-girl act she pretended to swoon as she said, "Now if only my dream of being swept away by a handsome knight would come true as well."

"When I'm a knight I'll be sure to recommend the good ones to this tavern for drinks so you can take your pick."

"Oh really?" Malon asked, surprised and dropping the act. "That'd be amazing."

Link laughed at how happy that made Malon as she quickly changed into her barmaid outfit. Malon automatically helped tie some strings on the back.

"Hey, won't that mean you're going to quit here soon?" Malon asked from behind Link gently tying a knot. There was a rare tone of sadness in her voice.

"Yeah…but you know I'll visit all the time!" Link said quickly trying to cheer up her friend. "I'll just see you more often as a customer instead of a coworker."

"It won't be the same but still, congratulations Link. You deserved this."

Link turned around and shared a brief, friendly hug with her childhood friend. As soon as they parted Malon was back to her chipper self, ready to get back to work.

"Welp, pa can't run the store forever without me. Let's get to work."

"Yeah…" Link spoke warily, "There aren't too many grabbers today, are there?"

"Ha, well, all the regulars know better than to grab you, so there's only the half-dozen new guys to worry about."

"Wonderful, I'm in a good mood today so I guess I'll only break their arms if they touch me today." Link said sarcastically. She walked after Malon into the main bar area waving at Talon as she entered.

"Pa, Pa! Link did it, she's going to enter the Royal Army!" Malon excitedly told her father.

Quickly serving the drinks in his hands he turned to Link.

"Really? Well ain't tha' dandy. I suppose yer not long fer workin' here then?"

"Sorry Talon, you've been great but this is what I've been waiting for." Link said cheerfully, grabbing her little notepad and pen to take orders and getting ready to dive into work.

"Well, I suppose this has been long in comin'. Congratulations dear, you can have a free drink after work."

"Thanks, I'll take you up on that."

Having told Malon and Talon the news, Link dived into work. Taking orders and serving drinks like she did most days of the week. She was more cheerful than normal today, knowing that since she quit Byrnwuld's academy, the next paycheck would go to her instead of him. She'd have some pocket money for once. Today was also good because none of the patrons got the wise idea to try and feel her bottom. She once thought she heard a regular warning a new guy against the idea, something that didn't bother her in the least.

There was one patron though, that gave her an odd feeling. The Lon Lon ranch respected the privacy of its patrons, so it wasn't against the rules to keep your hood up in the bar. But the man in the corner gave Link a bad vibe. It was like the vibe she got when she knew a customer was getting too drunk and about to get rough and stupid. But the man only had the one drink in his hand and didn't seem at all violent. Still, he'd been cradling that glass for well over an hour, making no signs of wanting a refill or to leave. Having had enough, Link eventually walked over to him and put on her fake smile.

"Would you like a refill sir, or a check?"

Link's hand reached for the empty glass, when suddenly the man's grabbed her wrist and roughly turned her arm to show the back of her hand.

"What the-hey!"

Link's voice carried through the bar and the whole place seemed to freeze for a moment. Most of the regular patrons were expecting to see the man's hand on her rear or something, but were surprised by the sight.

"What's wrong with you?"

Link had barely been able to ask the question when the man had let go and dropped a red rupee on the table, leaving quickly and silently as a shadow. Rubbing her wrist, Link felt confused as she grabbed the money (13 rupee tip?) and looked at the mark on the back of her hand. She'd often been made fun of for the mark when she was little, but she hadn't actually thought about it for years now. Why had the man been so rude, and why was he interested in her mark? She looked at the rupee, trying to see if it was counterfeit or something, but it wasn't. Strange though, it had Goron markings. This rupee had been mined and distributed from a bank at Death Mountain rather than from Hyrule. While not impossible to find, Goron rupees were far from common. She pocketed the rupee and marked on her pad about the price and change. She had too many patrons to deal with at the moment to spend much time on weirdos.

After several hours of work, with midnight having just passed and the last patron gently guided out the door, Malon and Link finished changing clothes and cleaning the bar. Saying goodnight to her friend and other coworkers, and getting that free drink from Talon ("Damn, I was hopin' you'd forgot.") Link left and started making her way to the residential district and her apartment. It was fairly dark, with only a few of the new Crystal Magic lamps working right. A passing guard offered to escort her home. Judging by his voice of concern, a genuine offer rather than flirting, but still Link politely refused. She could take care of herself, or so she thought.

Link had barely turned the corner when she heard a thumping sound, like a sack of potatoes hitting the ground. Turning around to see what it was, and if the guard was alright, she saw a man turning the corner, hooded and a glistening blade in his hand. With a jolt of realization, she could see that the blade glistened from the fresh blood dripping from the blade. Hearing several soft footfalls around her, Link knew she was surrounded by at least a half-dozen men, one of whom had already murdered a guard in cold blood. They wanted her, and whatever their reason was, Link knew she wouldn't like it. Without hesitation, she threw the glass of mead in her hand at the face of the man with the sword. Hearing the smash rather than seeing it because she was already turning to face her other foes, she knew that he wouldn't bother her for a minute. The other five were already charging her.

The first was a large man, brutish and stupid, judging by the way he swung his massive arms at her. A part of her mind noted that only the man with beer and glass in his face had a sword, the others had steel knuckles, a short, blunt stick, and a cloth? As she dodged under the big guy, Link knew the cloth had some kind of knock-out formula on it. So they wanted her alive? Was the sword for show? To scare her? No, assume they want to kill, play it safe, hold nothing back.

A swift uppercut to the pit of the big guy's arm and it was dislocated. The big man bellowed in pain as Link slid forward towards the man with the cloth. If that touched her face, it was over, so he absolutely had to be neutralized. In one swift motion, she distracted the man by taking off and throwing her coat at him, giving her ample opportunity to kick the man in the groin, sending him face-first into the dirt grabbing his jewels. The other three were moving forward now, looking wary after that groin shot, not quite ready to charge yet. Deciding to do the charging herself, she was about to attack when one massive arm suddenly wrapped around her and squeezed the air out of her.

"Gotcha you bitch!"

Link felt the man's useless arm flapping against her and could tell he didn't have a good grip, as strong as it was. She was impressed that he was actually as tough as he appeared, but didn't stop from whipping her head back, hitting him in the nose and breaking it. She felt a bit of blood spurt from the man onto her hair, but didn't worry about that for the moment. The man had dropped her and she fell to her knee, even as she could breath again, so she needed to get air into her lungs and stand up.

Unfortunately, there was no time for her to recover. She had been hopelessly outnumbered from the start. Before she could even raise her head after taking in her first good lung of air, the man with the short stick smacked the back of her head. Blackness filled her vision and she was down.


	4. Chapter 3: Fate Defied?

Link's fist clenched in anger as she recalled the night before. What cowards they were to have ganged up on her like that. She briefly wondered to herself if she could have taken them all on in a more fair fight, with a weapon in her hand or something, but quickly dismissed the idea. There had been a half dozen of them. She could have taken on at most three of them, but they used more than enough to ensure they could capture her. Judging by the fact that the butler-looking man was familiar with her birthmark, they might have been watching her for some time, spying on her. A brief shiver of disgust went through her as she wondered how much of her life they may have spied on.

A thought suddenly occurred to her though. That man at the bar who grabbed her wrist and looked at her mark, was he one of these guys? If he was, did they only learn about the mark then, and kidnapped her that night off of just that?

Craning her neck, Link looked at her bound hand, twisting it in its bonds to look at it. Yeah, it was a dark triangle, with two barely visible triangles next to it. As a child she once compared it to a small part of the Royal Family's Crest on the Knights' Shields. She pretended that this was proof that she was related to the royal family and Zelda's long lost sister, though that did not last long once her parents died and she had to take care of herself.

At the thought of her parents, he mind drifted to her uncle, the one who took care of her. Her parents had been taken by a sickness that swept through Hyrule about ten years ago. While children, like Link at the time, merely had cold-like symptoms, adults who caught the disease fell deathly sick, coughing up a bit of blood before dying. It was still unknown why certain adults didn't catch the disease despite obvious exposure like Link's uncle, but there were some ideas that the ones who were immune had caught a similar disease in the past and had resistance to it.

Link just knew that her uncle Rusl would be distraught with worry over Link's disappearance. He once told her that he swore to his sister on her deathbed to protect their daughter, and had always worried about every little thing Link did. Link's desire to be a warrior and generally tomboyish attitude had always worried Rusl endlessly. Link wondered how long she had been unconscious, and whether anyone had noticed her disappearance yet. After thinking for a moment, she figured that if less than a day had passed then probably not yet. She had her own apartment, though she normally had breakfast with Rusl. She skipped breakfast often enough though that he likely wouldn't notice anything wrong. She had quit the swordsmanship school, so Lance wouldn't notice her absence until much later, if at all. She had planned on seeing him just before the academy would open for the day, but hadn't actually mentioned that to him the previous night.

The ones who would likely notice first would be Malon and Talon, when she didn't show up for work. Malon would likely be hysterical by the time Link was an hour late and would charge out the door and over to Link's house to find out what was wrong. She would find the apartment empty, with no signs that Link made it home. She'd go straight to the guards and an investigation would ensue. The murder of that one guard would likely be related to Link's disappearance and hopefully evidence of her kidnapping would be found.

But Link had no false hopes that she would ever be found by her friends and family. She didn't have any idea where she even was at the moment. For some reason she felt sure she wasn't in the capital of Hyrule anymore, though she had no explanation for this intuition.

Pulling lightly at her chains again, she sighed sadly. She wasn't going to break these chains through raw strength. She could see no way to escape. It had been just short of an hour since the butler had left and the fat guard outside the cell had already fallen asleep on his chair. Though she was trying to resist, she could feel despair slowly creeping in. Tears were just starting to well up in her eyes when she spotted something that stopped her.

A hand was reaching out of a ventilation grate. Just outside the cell, above the guard, a hand with a wrench was slipping through the grate and loosening the nuts holding it in place. Even as Link gaped at the hand, wondering what was happening, a spark of excitement was growing inside her. For whatever reason, someone was sneaking into the area. Maybe whoever this person was, he or she was going to save her. Ignoring a thought in the back of her mind that the timing was a bit convenient, she watched in anticipation.

As the first nut came off and the hand carefully pulled it inside before starting on the next one Link mentally noted that despite the extreme rust on the grate, she could hear no noise. Her expression turned quizzical as she wondered how there was no noise. Of course, magic. Whoever this was could use magic and was suppressing sound. Even the once loud snoring of the guard seemed diminished.

Suddenly the second nut fell.

Link gasped and held her breath as she watched the hand from the grate desperately grab for the nut and failing. The rusty metal thing hit the ground outside the apparent spell suppressing sound and made a loud ringing noise that echoed through the area. Seeing the guard stir, Link quickly slumped, pretending to be asleep. Her last sight before doing so was of the hand retracting into the vent.

As she looked at her knees, she saw the nut that had just fallen next to her, having apparently bounced in her direction. Hearing the grumbling of the guard, she quickly shuffled her leg to cover the nut.

The wooden chair the guard sat on creaked as he stood up.

"Wha…What was that noise?" He asked groggily, rubbing his eyes. Since Link was still feigning sleep, the guard banged his fist against the bars as he said more loudly. "You heard me wench. What was that noise, I saw you move just now."

Slowly Link raised her head, glaring defiantly at the guard. She could see golden eyes watching from the vent behind the guard. Good, whoever that was hadn't abandoned her.

"Don't call me that." Link said, her voice cold and haughty.

The guard seemed to finally wake up at that, looking at Link with a bit of surprise.

"What?"

"Don't call me a wench. I'm a thousand times more of a warrior than you could ever hope to be."

"Ha! Really?" The Guard asked, sounding incredulous. He couldn't believe that his prisoner was suddenly so arrogant.

Glancing her eyes slightly to the side, Link saw that the person in the vents had apparently understood her intent. The hand had returned and the wrench was working again.

"And what are you gonna do exactly, _Wench_?"

"I'm going to escape from these chains, very soon you pig-headed freak, and then I'm gonna gut you like the swine you are!" Link declared, trying not to glance at the vent too much.

"Hah! You're lucky Lord Fangor took the key with him or I'd open this cell and teach you a lesson you bratty wench."

Link clucked her tongue, remembering when that man had pocketed the key. She was just in the middle of trying to figure out how her friend could help her escape when something clicked.

"Did you say Fangor? That man was Lord Fangor?!" Link asked, her voice much louder than she intended.

"That's right lassie, the mighty Warlock Fangor, ruler of New Hylia, is the one who locked you in here. So don't get any bright ideas about escap-AGH!"

Link had been so shocked by the revelation of that butler guy being Fangor (which didn't match her mental image of the man) that she hadn't noticed the man in the vent finish his job, slip down to the ground, and stab the guard in the back with a dagger.

Because he had been facing her, Link saw with detail as the pig-man's beady eyes bulged in pain, his mouth gaped open in horror as he started to comprehend what had happened to him. His eyes never left Link's as he collapsed to the ground, twitched a couple times, and stopped moving.

It took a couple seconds for it to dawn on her that Link had just witnessed someone die. She'd heard stories of war, fantasized about being a Royal Knight, and even knew that a guard had died just the night before. But seeing the fear in the guard's eyes as he died was somehow horrifying to her. Even as her mind tried to justify his death, that he was a bad man, that he was complicit in the kidnapping and imprisonment of a girl, and even that she had boasted mere moments ago about doing it herself. She still felt a sick feeling in her stomach.

Link sat there, too stunned to realize what was happening. She didn't notice the man magically unlock the cell, didn't hear him introduce himself, and didn't notice him freeing her bindings. It wasn't until he shook her that she came back to reality.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Link looked up at the man who freed her. It suddenly registered that the man was a Gerudo. Red hair and dark skin, he was definitely a Gerudo, just like Naboora, the woman from the other day. Link recalled that once upon a time, male Gerudo were incredibly rare, only occurring once every century, with that Gerudo being king (a story that annoyed Link, as it pissed her off that by default of being a man, a person was made ruler of an entire race).

300 years ago, the Gerudo had a male born, just like they had expected. This boy had immediately begun to be raised to be the king, when just a year later, another boy had been born. The Gerudo were in turmoil for a while, with a war almost flaring up over two males existing. Over the next decade, several more males were born to the Gerudo. It was soon realized that something had changed, something critical. The Gerudo were no longer a purely female race. And since there were more than one male in a generation, the previous tradition could not be kept anymore.

Up until the present, the Gerudo had changed because of this. Though men made up less than 3 percent of the total Gerudo population, virtually none of them had any power in society. Without men being arbitrarily put in charge, the Gerudo were definitively ruled by a woman. According to the Gerudo, if one of their few men worked hard enough, he could technically rise to be a King, but they generally weren't given the opportunity. Men were second-class citizens among the Gerudo, and most of them could hope for little more than to become house-husbands. Link loved the irony.

"Are you okay?" The man asked again, gently shaking Link's shoulder.

"Ah, yeah. Thank you." Link said, looking away from the man as she rubbed her wrists. Her eyes fell on the dead guard and again she felt sick, especially when she saw the blood pooling under him.

"That…was the first time you saw someone die, wasn't it?" The man asked, seeming worried.

"Y-yeah. I've never seen someone die before."

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't help it." The man helped Link stand up.

"No, I figure that a couple more guards are going to die before we escape. If I can't handle this, I can't call myself a warrior, can I?"

"Yeah, more guards are definitely going to die during our escape, but that shouldn't make their deaths easy. I don't like the fact that killing is easy for me now."

Link looked again into the golden eyes of this man. She could see now that they were hard, that he had seen a fair bit of death. She also thought she could see kindness in his eyes.

"I'm Link. Thanks for saving me." Link said, introducing herself.

"I guess you were too stunned the first time, but I'm Don."

Standing straight up, Link noticed that the man was about an inch shorter than her. Her eyes quickly looked him over, taking in his stature. He was a man of slight build, with shoulder length red hair. He was garbed in tight-fitting leather armor, and she saw bits of tape holding certain bits down. She realized that his outfit helped prevent from making noise.

"Like what you see?" Don asked with a smirk, noticing her looking him over.

Link's cheeks turned red as she shook her head.

"I wasn't-"

"I know what you were doing. You were sizing me up, seeing how good of a comrade I was going to make."

"Er…" Link wasn't going to put it that way exactly, but couldn't respond because Don had interrupted her by handing her the guard's sword.

"Here, you need to be armed. This guard's shortsword should do you fine."

Link moved the sword to her left hand and hefted the blade. It was a crude broadsword that was almost the length of her arm. It was heavy in the blade and the edge was chipped and dull. The critical part of her recognized that the guard was essentially a noncombatant, always doing little more than babysitting prisoners. He likely didn't bother to maintain his weapons because he never thought he'd use them. Then her boast earlier about being a warrior many times better was likely more true than she realized.

And for taking down other guards as incompetent as this one, this sword would do fine. Walking out of her cell, Link looked around. She was in a hallway filled with cells on one side and doors exiting at the far ends. Quickly Link checked out her neighboring cells and found no other prisoners.

"You had an entire ward devoted to you." Don commented, smirking as he walked past her towards one end of the hallway.

"But why me? What does this mark mean?" Link asked, holding up her hand and showing the mark.

Stopping, Don turned and gently grabbed Link's hand, looking at the mark closely.

"It means that you're someone very special. That you're a direct danger to Fangor's plans." Don said, a grin on his face. "You're gonna be a genuine fairy tale hero!"

"Right…" Link said dubiously. She still didn't believe that her mark was anything more than an ugly birthmark. "And I'm Princess Zelda's long lost sister."

"Close." Don said with a chuckle, "But I'll explain that bit later."

Link blinked in surprise. Wondering wildly what Don had meant by that, she followed him. Before she could ask, he made a shushing motion as he got to the door and crouched next to it. Link did the same, trying to be quiet as Don pressed his ear against the door.

"Two guards, at the end of the hall to the right. They're chatting about going to the pub tonight."

Link's eyebrows rose in amazement. Pressing her own ear against the door she could hear little more than a quiet mumbling sound. This man's ears were amazing. Whispering back to him, Link asked, "What's the plan?"

"I think…" Don was quiet for a moment as he contemplated the options. He glanced at Link and her sword, which she gripped tightly, as if to tell him she was ready to do whatever was necessary. Nodding, Don said, "I'm going to throw the door open and cast a spell at the guards, it's called Flashbang, and will blind and daze them for a couple seconds. They're just a couple seconds' sprint down the hall. After I've casted the spell you'll follow me down the hall and we'll take them down. If they're conveniently positioned as such, you go for the right, I'll go for the left one."

Link swallowed and nodded. She understood what the plan was, and after a moment of mental preparation, was ready to move.

Don held up three fingers, then two, then one.

Don shouldered the door open and thrust a hand down the hallway. From her position she couldn't see anything but Don, and watched as he covered his own eyes and a flash of bright light flung from his fingers. The guards had barely had time to grunt in response to Don's appearance when the spell apparently went off. Link saw Don turn away as blinding light splashed against him. The guards she couldn't yet see screamed in pain, yelling about their eyes.

"Now!" Don yelled as he started to sprint down the hall.

Link hopped through the door and quickly sprinted after him. Though Don had a second and a half head start, Link quickly sped past him and got the guards first. The closer guard was to the right and Link tackled him to the ground while he was still rubbing his eyes. Rolling off of him Link quickly raised her sword and plunged it into the guard's chest. She heard and felt the sickening noise of the blade piercing leather and flesh. Link averted her eyes from the guard's face, not wanting to see the same thing she saw earlier on the other guard's face. She felt the guard's hand grab her arm weakly, as if to pull her off of him, but the grip went slack and fell to the ground. After a moment, Link would realize she was shaking.

She opened her eyes slowly to look at her handiwork. The blade was plunged into the center of the guard's chest, right into his heart. She took solace in the fact that his death was, if not painless, at least it was quick. She looked up and saw Don standing up from his kill, wiping his dagger on the guard's cloak. Don turned then to look at her and realized she was in shock.

"H-hey, let me help you." He said quickly, moving to pull her blade out of the guard. He quickly wiped it clean and helped her stand again. The look on his face said that he was somewhat bemused by Link's reluctance to kill people in cold-blood. Yet at the same time, he seemed to understand. He gave Link a moment to compose herself. Eventually she would get used to this kind of work, he thought to himself.

"Why do they look like pigs?" Link asked suddenly. Don realized she had been glancing at the face of her kill.

"Oh, that's a bit complicated." Don said rubbing his chin for a moment. "Lord Fangor is a powerful warlock, right?"

Link nodded.

"Well, magic is in a person's blood, so Fangor has many experiments going on related to that. His soldiers are part of a project of implanting his blood into people to see if they can gain a fraction of his power, or something like that. For some reason, a majority of these people turn into these pig-men, or goblins as they're coming to be called. While they don't have any increase in magical ability, they are undeniably stronger physically. Which is why we need to use stealth tactics, at least until you're more of a hero and can face them head-on."

Link briefly pondered on this. Putting that Fangor guy's blood into these people turned them into monsters? She wondered what horrible reason there could be for such a thing.

"Where are we going from here?" Link asked next, trying to divert her mind from the pig-men, or goblins as Don called them. "And why can't we use the vent like you did earlier."

"From here we need to find our way to the prison courtyard and then to the warden's office. From there we'll escape through a garbage chute."

"There's a garbage chute in the Warden's office?" Link asked with a chuckle.

"No, but it's just around the corner from there, getting to the office is simply a landmark, so to speak."

"Ah. And why no vents?"

"I could only use the vents for a short distance while sneaking in. They won't do us any good for actually escaping. None of them are on any useful paths."

"Damn. By the way, once we're out of here, I have a couple questions about you, why you're helping me."

"Of course, and I'll be happy to answer them. Long story short though, I'm helping you because Fangor's afraid of you."

"I still don't understand why. Just because of my birthmark I'm some hero?"

"Not yet, but that mark makes you destined to be one. Now shush for a second."

Don made a friendly shushing motion as he crouched next to the door and listened like before. This time he didn't say anything as he slowly opened it and peeked around. Link peeked through as well and saw another hallway. It looked the same as the one they were already in.

"This way, stay quiet." Don said as he slowly started walking.

Link nodded and followed close behind him. She was slightly annoyed though, since her sword had been taken off that guard, she didn't have a sheath or anything to hold it. She had to keep it in her hand and try not to let it bump against anything.

They ended up going through several hallways before they spotted the next guard. He was patrolling over the prison courtyard Don had mentioned earlier. Don had motioned for Link to stay still while he slid forward like a shadow, sneaking up behind the guard and slitting his throat. With a grunt he heaved the heavy corpse into a shadow and motioned for Link to catch up. As Link moved forward, she passed several cells that actually had people in them. They were finally in the part of the prison where the majority of people were kept. She saw all of them were sleeping and didn't notice her passing, which tugged at her mind for a moment.

She realized why after a moment as she passed a window. Seeing the moon she realized her sense of time was off. She had been knocked out at around midnight, and taken to New Hylia and this prison. When she woke up, she thought it was morning, but such a trip had to have taken a much longer time than that. From what she knew, it would take almost a full day of riding horseback at full speed, meaning she woke up to that slap in the face probably just as night began to fall. She wondered why she had been out for so long.

A hissing noise of Don trying to get her attention brought her back to reality and she hurried to catch up with him. Following close behind again, they sneaked through the shadows past several more guards around the courtyard before diving back into the winding hallways and cells. Feeling like they were going in circles, Link trusted Don to find their way, and soon enough, he apparently did.

"Here, that's the warden's office." Don whispered, making Link stop and pointing to an iron door. Link could see light flickering along the bottom edge of the door. "Damn, he's inside."

"Why is that a problem? I thought we weren't going through there."

"We're not, but I am." Don said, biting a nail for a moment.

"Why?!" Link hissed her exclamation, trying not to be loud while still getting her seriousness across.

"I gotta leave my sign, so they know who broke you out of prison."

"Y-your sign?! Couldn't you have just done that back in my cell?" Link's voice was filled with exasperation.

"No, that'd be too easy. It has to be the warden's office for the message to have weight."

"I can already feel the heavy hand of Fangor coming after us, that's weight enough!"

"Just wait a moment. Look, the chute is down that hall there, on your right. You can't miss it, go and wait by it. If you hear a ruckus and think I've been noticed, just go down yourself, get out of the garbage area, and find a pub called Lanaryu's Beard. If I don't make it, my friends there will be able to assist you instead."

Frowning for a moment, Link nodded. This was insanely stupid, but Don seemed confident. Shaking her head she quickly snuck down the hallway and found the garbage chute. She opened it for a moment before the smell made her close it. She found herself praying that there was another way to escape. She had only been sitting there for a couple minutes when Don reappeared, a smug grin on his face.

"Message delivered." He said with a haughty laugh. "Now quick, down the garbage chute."

"About that, do you thi-"

"No, there are no other options."

"But how di-"

"I snuck in by letting myself get arrested drunken behavior and sneaking out of my cell later. Now down the chute."

"But!"

"Now!"

Link frowned again, looking at her supposed friend.

Don rolled his eyes in annoyance for a second before an idea struck him.

"Oh I'm sorry. I forgot you were a girl, going down the garbage chute is _obviously_ too _icky_ for someone like you."

Link knew full well he had said that just to play against her dislike of girl stereotypes. And after a moment of fuming, knew that he won the argument purely because of it.

"Damn you…"

She grumbled as she opened the chute, pinched her nose, glared at Don one last time, and then slid down to the stinky hell below.

* * *

Author's Commentary

Hello! I'm DaemonSol, aka Vincent, the author of this story. Sorry for the delay getting the third chapter out, but this is my first story EVER and I suffer from something called laziness. So far I've generally done each chapter in a day once I got around to working on it.

Anywho, I want to start hearing some comments! It was immensely satisfying when I got the notice less than an hour after publishing the first chapter that I already had TWO followers, TWO! So, I want to hear what my fans think. I would love constructive criticism as I write my story and would love simply praise as well! (no flaming or insults without justification)

Now I suppose I should comment a bit about the story I'm writing and why. As you may have noticed by now, LINK'S A GIRL! WHAT THE HELL!? Yeah...this whole story with a girl Link sprang from an idea I got after I finished Skyward Sword and started thinking about the whole "Spirit of the Hero" business. Strictly speaking, Link is a Soul that keeps getting reincarnated, along with Ganon and Zelda. Ganon is Demise's Hatred (making him kinda weird) and Zelda has the "Blood of the Goddess", which is why she's only reincarnated into the Royal Family that the first Zelda made. But the only technical requirement for Link is that he have the Spirit of the Hero. Yeah, he was originally a guy, and would probably choose to come back each time as a guy, but where does it say he can't be a girl for a lifetime? Thus, my insane idea. It festered and grew like cancer until I realized I had a whole storyline forming in my mind, including many plot devices related to Link being a girl (Spoilers: Zelda will not be pleased).

Now, as you may have noticed, gender roles are playing a large part in the story, what with this being a semi-medieval setting and all. Link will meet a fair number of outright chauvinistic pigs (who will increasingly LOOK like pigs), who she'll bump heads with. Even some people who aren't outright chauvinistic, but simply traditional in mindset, will become troublesome. Link is a woman in a setting that only thinks Men can be heroes, and many people will struggle with dealing with her.

To comment on this for a bit, I am a male, yes. I do think highly of women (who don't play to stereotypes). I'm a bit of a feminist, and take a lot of inspiration for this from Hiyao Miyazaki. His regular use of girls as heroines is part of the reason I want to write this story. If you don't know who Miyazaki is, I feel sad for you. Quick, go google him and watch his movies.


	5. Chapter 4: Through the Lost Woods

"Craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap!"

Link yelled out her personal feelings on the matter of sliding down a garbage chute into a prison garbage dump after a garbage day in what was quickly turning into a garbage life.

"WOOOOOHOOOO!"

Don on the other hand, seemed to be having fun. Link heard his voice from about twenty feet behind her. She was just starting to wonder how long the chute and how far below the dump was when she heard Don call out from behind her.

"Don't forget, tuck and roll when you hit the bottom!"

That was just at the point when Link finally saw a speck of light at the bottom of the chute.

"Wait, what are we gonna land in?" Link yelled backwards as the light got closer.

"Something wet, foul, and downright nasty!" Don called forward, sounding like he was laughing with glee.

Link grimaced as she prepared herself. She straightened herself as best she could on the slippery, slime-covered slide. She braced her arms and legs against the sides to try to slow herself down as the light rapidly became large and she found herself flying through the air towards a pool of dark green sludge dotted with piles of garbage. Link hit the ground roughly and did her best to deflect the impact by rolling like Don suggested. While that did wonders for saving her legs from being broken, she now smelled wonderfully like sewage-soaked fecal matter that had been left to rot for weeks on end.

"Oh Goddesses…" Link moaned as she stood up, sewage dripping off of her. "Don, please tell me you have a spell to clean us off."

Rubbing the slime out of her hair, Link looked around.

"Don?"

The Gerudo rogue wasn't among the sludge and slime with Link.

"Yes I do fair lady."

His voice oddly came from above. Looking up Link saw Don floating on a sort of dust cloud just outside the chute's exit, not a stinking stain on him.

"Why couldn't you levitate me too?!" She asked, full of anger and frustration at being covered in filth.

"Sorry, I got magic, but it's not powerful enough to make us both float at the same time." He said with a chuckle as he landed on a taller pile of garbage gently. "My powers are only enough for tricks and gimmicks."

Link was quiet for a second as she glared at Don for a moment. Suddenly she flung some goop that was clinging to her hand and hit Don square in the face.

"Fine, I forgive you." Link said as she watched Don try to wipe the sludge off, cursing while he did. She chuckled as Don silently glared at her.

After a moment, he shrugged. "Fair enough…"

Link chuckled that Don accepted her punishment for him. Looking around she started to trudge towards Don.

"Can we get out of this, forgive my language, SHITHOLE, already?"

Nodding, Don began to lead the way, guiding Link through the piles of garbage and out of the garbage dump. As they got to the edge Link noticed trees here and there. They were all dead, being smothered by trash, but as the sludge and garbage piles shrank, the trees started looking more alive and clustered together. After a few minutes of walking, they were officially out of the garbage and in a forest. At this point, Don casted the spell to clean them of the garbage, making it all slide off of them.

Looking up through a break in the canopy, Link looked up at the prison she just escaped. It was a tall, monstrous looking tower.

"You were on the top floor."

"Is that special?" Link asked, when Don noticed that she had stopped.

"While the prison is in fact full of dangerous people, murderers, thieves and the like, the top floor is reserved for people whose actions 'oppose the will of Lord Fangor'."

"Oppose?"

"Political prisoners and dissidents. Basically, good people. "

Link frowned, her brow furrowed in thought.

"And, purely because of this stupid birthmark, I was chosen to be saved out of all those people?"

Link's voice carried just a hint of indignation. Don seemed to understand Link's feelings.

"Getting _anybody_ out of that prison was a once in a lifetime deal. Now that you've escaped, out of their _maximum security_ wing and more, _without raising an alarm_ at that, I'll never be able to just sneak in and break someone out again. Before I got news of your arrival, I was in the middle of planning to break out a politician with powerful friends. Do you want to know why I chose you over him?"

For the first time since she met him, Don had a look of frustration on his face.

"Because I'm a 'genuine fairy tale hero', right?" Link asked, with more than a little bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"No, that's why Fangor kidnapped you. _I_ broke you out because Fangor is more scared of you than the old fart I was gonna save. And right now, Fangor's getting the news of your escape."

A malicious grin spread across Don's face that made Link take a step back.

"And right now, Fangor's crapping his pants in fear of you."

"But _why_ is he afraid of _me_?"

"Because over the many thousands of years of Hyrule's history, a boy of tremendous courage is always born to save the land from the evils that plague it. And every time he is born, he bears the mark of the Tri-Force."

"The Tri- THAT'S JUST A FAIRY TALE TOO!"

"No it's not. I don't know for certain about this whole hero bit, but I know for sure about the Tri-Force."

Link went silent at this. Of all the fairy tales she'd heard as a child, the Tri-Force was the most unbelievable of all. In its story it was forged by the Goddesses Naryu, Din, and Farore, and was supposedly capable of granting any wish. She had thought that if such a thing existed, its power would drive the greediest of men to fight over it. And indeed, most stories about it told of wars fought over it.

"How can you be certain?" She asked warily.

"Because Fangor has the Tri-Force of Power. It's the reason he's such a powerful Warlock. It's the reason his blood is so potent with raw power that it corrupts the people injected with it into goblins and horrifying monsters."

"How do you know that he has it?" Link asked, a bit more insistently. She realized that Don still hadn't mentioned something important.

"Because I watched him acquire it." Don said with a tone of finality. "I was there when he broke the seal on an ancient tomb and a pig-monster phantom possessed him. I saw the same mark on your hand appear on his, and I saw it glow. I fled then, out of an instinct I didn't understand at the time. After that I only heard the screams of my friends dying as Fangor's voiced yelled about how the Power was his, and his alone. After that Fangor changed, he became power-hungry. He quickly used trickery and guile and rose to leadership of Ordon, somehow discovered that ancient ruin, and changed the city into New Hylia."

Link was quiet for a moment as she contemplated what Don told her. Seeming to understand her need to think, Don also went quiet as he continued to lead their way through the woods.

"Where was this ancient ruin?" Link asked trying to sort various details out in her head.

"Not far from here. It's deep within Faron Woods."

"If it's deep within the woods, how can it not be far from here, aren't we in New Hylia?"

"Technically, yes. Ordon was on the edge of Faron Woods and when Fangor took over, New Hylia started expanding. Fangor is attached to the ruins, which he uses to justify his religious crap. He doesn't want people finding it though so it's kept guarded. However, it's conveniently located in a part of the woods commonly called the Lost Woods. Normally if anyone tries to walk through these woods…they're kind of never seen again."

"I'm probably not going to like it…but what is this neck of the woods called?"

"It's commonly called the Lost Woods." Don said, chuckling.

"I assume the Lost Woods surround the prison to prevent any escaping criminals from surviving, right?"

"Exactly!"

"Oh my Goddesses…if people don't leave these woods, how the heck are we supposed to survive?"

"Because for some reason, I have no trouble navigating these woods. As long as you stick with me, you'll be fine."

"Convenient." Link commented. She followed Don in silence again, for a time while she thought. In the middle of her thinking though, she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. "What the-"

"Hm?"

"I thought I just saw something."

"Oh, what'd you see?" Don stopped and turned to look at Link.

"It looked like a child…"

"A child? Oh! Where, where did you see it? Did it have a fairy?" A look of manic excitement came over him.

"It was that way, and no, I didn't see a fairy or anything."

Don sprinted off in the direction Link pointed without a word. Link scrambled to keep up with him, his earlier words of people disappearing forever hanging heavy in her mind.

"W-wait! What's your problem?!"

"That was a Kokiri! If you really saw a child, dressed in green, with a fairy companion, then you saw a mythical Kokiri!" Don called back.

"But it wasn't dressed in green!"

Don skidded to a stop and turned to Link, panting, and looking more than a little frustrated.

"Tell me exactly what it looked like."

Link's brow furrowed as she tried to remember every detail.

"I…its outfit wasn't green. There were green bits but it was mostly a brown straw outfit, with a conical hat and…"

"And?"

"And a skull mask…"

Link paused and watched as Don's expression switched from confused, to thoughtful, to recognition.

"A skull kid."

"A what?"

"A myth related to the Kokiri. Supposedly, the Kokiri lived in a secret part of the Lost Woods, and if the Kokiri left the woods, and got lost, they'd turn into Skull Kids."

"Why did you flip out just now? Do you get a wish or something for catching one?" Link's question was asked sarcastically.

"Heh, no. They're just mythical and haven't been seen for ages. If I got to see it, maybe it could grant me some kind of wisdom or something."

"Wisdom, but they're kids, right?"

"Eternal kids, Kokiri don't age. They may look like ten year olds, but most of them are ancient."

At this point, Link started to feel a headache coming on and started rubbing her forehead.

"Ancient children, skull kids, ancient ruins and ultimate evils…I really am being sucked into a fairy tale, aren't I?"

"Heh, yep. And that's only for starters. According to a friend of mine, if you really are the reincarnation of a reoccurring hero integral to Hyrule's history, you're in for a whole lot more."

Link was quiet for a moment before a quiet whimper of despair came from her.

**-o-o-**

An hour later Don and Link finally found their way out of the woods. They were standing at the edge looking across a gap of chopped down trees at the walls of New Hylia.

"What're you looking at?" Link asked as she crouched behind a tree with Don.

"The guards. Remember, you're a fugitive from the prison wearing prison clothes. Even if we weren't trying to sneak into the city _way_ past curfew, you'd attract attention."

Link looked down at herself now, for the first time in ages. She was wearing a ragged brown tunic and rucksack pants. She was quite obviously not dressed appropriately and suddenly felt slightly self-conscious.

"So, what's the plan Don? Got some elaborate idea to sneak me into the city?"

"Not really, I was just thinking of running past the guards when they're not looking."

Don shrugged at Link's question as he answered, stooping down and picking up a rock. He measured the weight of the rock for a second before chucking it. Curious, Link watched it arc and hit one of the guards patrolling the wall square in the head. The ringing sound of it hitting was clear and loud.

"Woah, that's one heck of an arm you got Don." Link was saying even as Don grabbed her arm and started pulling her away. Link watched as the other guards on the wall and the ones near the gate all ran over to see what had happened to the guard and assess the situation. There was only one guard left at the gate Link and Don approached who was also looking in the direction of the chaos, mumbling to himself about wanting to see. As Don and Link sprinted up, the guard barely had time to turn and look surprised when Don's fist connected with his cheek, knocking him down and out.

As Link stepped over the unconscious guard she noted the fact that he was Hylian, not one of the goblin guards. She noted to herself to ask about that when they had the chance.

They ran through the streets for some time, sticking to the dark alleys where they wouldn't be seen, despite a few close calls. Eventually they came up on a tavern with an odd sign hanging over the door of a horned man with a huge white beard. Link didn't understand the reference, since she was only familiar with Lanaryu Province, not a person. Don guided her not to the front entrance, but the back, sneaking them both into the cellar and down some stairs into a dark place. Holding onto one of Don's straps, she nearly bumped into him in the darkness when he stopped and knocked on a door.

A rectangular light appeared for a second until a set of eyes blocked it off.

"Password."

"It's me, Don. I got the girl now lemme in."

"C'mon man, you know the rules. Password."

"Ugh…." Don groaned and rubbed his forehead, glancing back at Link for a moment before whispering, "Harder than a Goron's left testicle."

"Hehe, alright buddy, c'mon in."

The door swung open as Link giggled at the silly password Don had been forced to say.

"I'm gonna kill her if she keeps making up these stupid passwords."

"Who?" Link asked, trying to stop her giggling after Don gave her a sour look.

"You'll see soon enough." Don said with a sigh as he entered and stretched. He punched the person who was holding the door open lightly in the shoulder. "I hate you, Mutoh"

"Hehehe, sorry Don."

Link looked up at the broad-chested man chuckling at Don. He looked good-natured and had the body of a man who understood what hard labor was. Turning to look at her, Mutoh nodded in greeting and held out his hand.

"Nice to see ya m'lady. I hear you're someone important."

"Thanks." Link said, giving the man's hand a good squeeze.

"Ooh, lassie's got a grip. How does a nice girl like you get a hand like that?"

"By working day and night to become one of the Royal Knights."

A snort of laughter came from the man, making Link narrow her eyes.

"A tiny lass like you, a Royal Knight? Never heard o'such a thing."

"If I hadn't been kidnapped I'd be in the army right now." Link was acting defiant now. She always became like this when someone gave her this reaction, that a woman trying to join the army was silly.

"Oh, so you're not in the army. Didn't think so. Haha!"

At this point Don had turned back and realized what was about to happen and was trying to stop Mutoh.

"Hey, Mutoh, you should probably shut up now." Don's voice had a nervous edge to it.

"I had an officer say she'd be a reference for me getting in. I'm serious." Link poked Mutoh in the chest to try and make her point more forcefully.

"Hehe. Really lass, if you were about to join the army, then I got a wager for yeh." Mutoh said with a sly grin on his face.

"You're on." Link said without hesitation, causing Don to once again place his face in his palm.

"Don't be in a rush to agree."

"No, whatever it is, I can do it."

With a shrug and a chuckle, Mutoh said. "Alright, a round of arm-wrestling."

"Done."

"Ah, but the wager, if I win, you, pretty girl, have to give me a kiss full on the lips."

"I-what?!" Link drew back in disgust.

"Hahaha!" Mutoh laughed triumphantly. "Told ya lassie. Haha!"

Link gritted her teeth and stood back up to him, defiant look back.

"You're. On."

Mutoh looked most bemused that Link hadn't backed down.

"Uh, this is nice and all, but Link needs to-"

"She'll see my daughter soon enough. She's made a man's wager after all, she needs to complete it, and suffer the consequences." Mutoh spoke almost menacingly as he took a step to the side, pulled two barrels next to a crate, and sat down on one of the barrels. "Besides, it'll be over quick."

"Yes it will." Link sat down opposite of him and put her right arm on the crate. Mutoh's large hand quickly wrapped around Link's.

"Goddesses damn it, fine." Don said, stepping up and grabbing their joined hands. "Let's make this fair then. On the count of three, I let go. One. Two. Three."

Before Don had let go, Link and Mutoh had already started pressing their hands against each other. When Don's hand pulled away, much to Mutoh's apparent surprise, their hands went in neither direction. In fact, it tipped ever so slightly in Link's favor. Quickly Mutoh put his all into the contest and it held, shaking from the effort, in the middle. An amused chuckled came from Don.

"By. The. Way." Link grunted through her teeth, her eyes almost on fire as she stared at Mutoh. "In a wager, both sides have to offer something to the winner."

They tipped an inch in Link's favor.

"Since you made a kiss your prize, you perverted bastard."

Another inch.

"Something like that is extremely precious to a girl."

Two inches from victory.

"My prize."

One more.

"Is you, wearing. A. DRESS!"

Link yells the last word as she slams Mutoh's hand down. Mutoh groans in pain while Don is laughing his ass off. Link is panting and sweating from the immense effort of beating someone of Mutoh's raw strength.

Link watches as Mutoh rubs his sore arm, mumbling about Link cheating.

"No way man. I was watching. She beat you fair and square." Don said, catching his breath from laughing so hard. With a snap of his fingers, a large pink dress weaved itself into existence. "Now, for Link's prize. I think I'll borrow from your wife's wardrobe, if you don't mind."

Link chuckled now as Mutoh stared at the dress in horror. Before he could form the words to say no, Don snapped his fingers again and the dress replaced Mutoh's clothes.

"G-Goddesses dammit Don!"

Link and Don were now both laughing their asses off. Mutoh was covering his face, mortified. But their fun came to a swift end when a voice rang out.

"What in the name of Naryu is going on in here?"

"Anju!" Don and Mutoh cried out at the same time as Link turned to look at the red haired girl standing at the far doorway. Looking back, Link watched Don quickly undo his magic and return Mutoh's clothes to normal. Link turned again to look at this Anju. She had an air about her that said she was the brains of this operation, and she didn't like silly antics.

"Dad. What the hell were you doing in mom's dress."

Mutoh hesitated to answer so Link piped up.

"He lost a bet."

Anju looked at Link quietly.

"This the girl? She have the mark?"

Link raised her hand to show the mark on it.

After a moment of contemplation, Anju asked, "What was the bet?"

"I beat him at arm-wrestling because he thought it was funny I was joining the Royal Knights."

"And you made him wear mom's dress?"

"Hey, he wanted me to _kiss_ him as his prize."

At this Anju smirked finally, the tension leaving the room. Link heard Don and Mutoh beside her audibly let go of the breaths they were holding.

"Figures. Well in that case, well done. C'mon. Time to introduce the gang."

Anju motioned for Link to follow her as she went through the door. Link again glanced at the two men beside her, Don looking relieved and Mutoh looking sour. With a confident grin, Link hurried to follow Anju. Now that she was out of that prison, she felt like things might start looking up.

* * *

Author's Commentary

Hi guys, sorry about the delay posting the chapter. But the superstorm that came over the east coast kinda killed my mood for writing the last half of this chapter (blatant excuse for my laziness).

I loved the reviews I got. All three of them. I like getting praise. Also, to ZombieKillerLevi, about Don not dying, I make no promises that any of the characters in my story will survive, not even Link (not done writing the story outline).

Also, the other day I was rereading chapter 3 and I noticed a few grammatical errors, a misplaced question mark and a couple typos. Since I'm doing this myself without an editor or anything, I'd appreciate it if you guys would let me know of any screw-ups you spot in my story.


	6. Chapter 5: La Resistance

Link quickly followed Anju into the next room, where she looked around. The room was a bit cramped, with maps splayed across the walls and a large table in the middle covered with stacks of paper, a couple weapons, and another map, with daggers stabbed into certain places. Several people surrounded the table most wearing hoods to hide their face. She wanted to look more closely at the map and was curious about the hooded people, but Anju seemed to have something to say first.

"So, what's your name girl?" The red-head asked.

"Link." She quickly responded.

"Nice to meet you. I hope you are worth sacrificing a powerful politician for." Link could tell Anju was looking her over. Trying to measure up her usefulness. Having just beat Mutoh in an arm-wrestling match, Link was sure her strength was vouched for, so she figured she needed to show that she had brains too.

"Like I told you before Anju," Don spoke up, entering the room behind Link, with Mutoh staying behind. Link figured Mutoh was the doorman, so he had to stay in the previous room. "Politics don't mean squat to Fangor, no politician has the power to even annoy him anymore. But he's afraid of Link here," Don grabbed Link's wrist and showed the birthmark. "And she's a decent fighter. She'll be more useful to us in the coming fights than any wrinkled, old politician."

Anju was silent for a moment. Link noticed she looked tired, and despite being young, was starting to get stress lines. Link could tell that she had once been "the pretty girl" of the village that every guy wanted and was treated like a princess. Link was familiar with these types of girls as being weak-willed though, so Anju was a pleasant surprise. She seemed to be made out of some tough stuff.

"I know." Anju said finally, sighing heavily. "I guess it's foolish of me to keep trying the diplomatic approach anymore." After Don nodded in agreement, Anju turned to Link again.

"I suppose we should introduce you to the gang." She turned to look at the other people in the room. They all looked up and lowered their hoods as Anju would introduce them.

"First say hello to Onyx. He's the only Goron in our outfit." The tallest one lowered his hood and revealed the dirt-colored skin of a Goron. He nodded at Link in greeting, looking at her closely with his coal-black eyes.

"Goro…It's a pleasure to meet you Link. I look forward to working with you, goro." He spoke with an odd verbal tic, something Link had once heard was fairly common among Gorons, although none of the Gorons that visited the Lon Lon Pub ever had such a thing.

"It's nice to meet you too Onyx." Link said, nodding and giving him a small wave as Anju continued.

"Over there is Kauli and Kaubi, they're Zoras." Two more lowered their hoods, revealing the sharp angled features of Zoras. Link had heard that the Zoras had once been more human-like in appearance, but had changed over the past millennia to be much less so, while Gorons had apparently grown more human-like in their appearance. Seeing a Goron and Zora next to each other, Link could see it clearly now, Onyx looked very much like a dirt-colored, very large human. Kauli and Kaubi however, who seemed to be twins, were had sharper features than any Hylian had, with long noses, fin-like ears, solid black eyes, and numerous other details that were decidedly different.

"I take it we're the first Zoras you've ever seen." One of the Zoras commented, looking at Link's face with some amusement.

"Ah, I'm sorry."

"It's fine, _girl_." The other Zora said, snickering at her apology. Link was getting a bad impression from these two that had nothing to do with their appearances. "Just try to keep the fish jokes to a minimum. We barely tolerate Don's."

Link glanced over at Don, who shrugged with a sheepish grin.

"What can I say? They make it too easy."

Link shook her head, finding it to be a small surprise that Don might make racial jokes. He had seemed, if not a gentleman, at least above such distasteful things. Oh well. Link turned back to the Zoras and introduced herself.

"My name is Link. Don tells me I'm supposed to be a Hero."

"Don says many things-"

"-But on this, he speaks sincerely."

Link nodded at the Zoras, wondering if they would have that odd habit she'd seen in another set of twins where one speaks and the other finishes the sentence. At that point an odd thought occurred to Link.

"I'm surprised to see a Goron and Zoras working together, considering the political shit-storm happening in your homelands." She commented, paying close attention to their reactions. Onyx and the twins briefly exchanged knowing looks tinged with sadness.

"As for that debacle-"

"We know it to be a farce." The twins spoke first, so far confirming Link's suspicions of using "twin-speak".

"Goro, we know for a fact that Lord Fangor is in fact responsible for the pollution incident, goro. In his bid to gain control over all of Hyrule, he has much to gain by causing political strife and turmoil among our respective peoples, goro."

Onyx spoke solemnly. Link saw his hand briefly touch his left elbow. Link recognized that look and motion as one of a warrior remembering an old wound.

"And more, because Fangor's such a master of manipulation, he only needed to stage one incident to get the three main kingdoms of Hyrule at each other's throats." Anju said.

Link looked over at her then, seeing the fair maiden standing over the map with the knives in it, staring with icy eyes at it.

"What do you mean?" Link asked, fearing the answer she suspected.

"Fangor knows how invested Hyrule Kingdom is in the continued peace of the land. As such, all he had to do was stage an industrial accident in the Goron's factories. Once the pollution caused by it hit the Zoras, they would cause political strife between their races. And then, the Hyrulians would get involved and try to play peacemaker. But both sides think that Princess Zelda's giving favor for the other side, causing even more tension. Right now the political stresses between them are reaching their peak."

"But Princess Zelda is making things right. I remember the news before I was kidnapped, things were going fine." Link pointed out the obvious, already somewhat knowing what Anju would say next.

"Do you think Fangor will just let the peace talks go as planned? No, we have evidence that soon enough, he will sabotage the peace meeting, and ruin any hope of avoiding war. And worse, Hyrule won't be able to stay neutral. Hyrule will be forced to pick a side, or fight both the Gorons and the Zoras. Either way, if this war breaks out like Fangor wants, whoever is left standing will be left too weak to defend against Fangor's army of goblins and monsters."

Link's mind recalled the sight of the pig-headed guards of the prison, which made her think of another question she had noted to herself. "That reminds me of a couple things. I had heard that the real reason behind Princess Zelda wanting to have the peace talks with the Gorons and Zoras was to get them to realize the threat Fangor posed. To unite them against him."

"Another reason Fangor will sabotage the meet."

"Yeah… Also, when Don and I snuck into town, I noticed that the guards around town weren't goblins like the ones in the prison. Are they really loyal to Fangor, and do they know about his 'experiments'?"

"Yes, they are loyal to Fangor, but not by choice. They are in fact, part of a difference experiment, involving brainwashing. Right now, every guard of this town has the exact same mind, same memories, and same name, even though they were all once normal citizens."

Link tried to absorb what Anju just said, but it took a moment for her to truly appreciate what was just said. "What…what do you mean?" She asked for confirmation, fearing that she had heard right.

"Fangor kidnapped numerous citizens of this city, and erased their former lives. All guards of this city think they're names are 'Steve' and have the same memories for their entire lives. When we captured and interrogated one of the guards, who used to be a man named Drake, he told us about this entire life he remembers, which we know is false, including a wife (never married) and kids (never had any) as well as being hand-picked by Fangor to be a Guard of the 'Best City in Hyrule.' After questioning several other guards and getting the exact same life story, we figured out what Fangor was doing."

"That's…horrible." Link whispered to herself, dreading what it would be like to lose your entire life and have it replaced by a fake memory.

"That's not even the worst part, Link." Anju said, a horrible sharpness edging into her voice. "The process is irreversible. We've tried every method we could think of to reverse the process. The only avenue we haven't explored is the purely magical ones. Don's the best mage we have, and he's only capable of party tricks. So until we find a way to fix them, we have about a dozen guards in the sub-subbasement chained up."

"Why don't you have any better mages at your disposal?" Link asked, looking at the last two hooded guys, who hadn't been introduced yet. They had been silent this whole time, as if waiting to be addressed.

"That, again, is answered by another of Fangor's experiments." A young voice came from one of the hooded ones.

"I'm beginning to sense a pattern here." Link said dryly, in regards to how many experiments Fangor was apparently doing.

"Yes, Fangor is quite the mad scientist. I should know, I was once his head researcher." The taller of the two, with a high squeaky voice, lowered his hood at the same time the other did. The man was bald with goggles on his forehead, and he had a long pointy nose, as well as a large tooth sticking over his bottom lip in an overbite from hell. "My name is Doc Bandam. And this is my daughter Aryll."

The girl looked to be about twelve years old and she smiled warmly at Link as she greeted Link. "Hiya! I'm Aryll, and I'm going to be a pirate one day!" She waved a telescope she pulled out of her sleeve in the air. Link raised an eyebrow at Bandam.

"She may act childish at times, but she's quite smart and mature for her age. She just has an odd fascination with pirates for some reason." Bandam smiled and rubbed the Aryll's head.

"So, what was that part about you being Fangor's head researcher?" Link asked.

"Ah, right. I was recruited by Fangor back in the early days to do practical research. It was back when Fangor was at least still trying to look nice, so I didn't know. My primary research was into restorative potions using Chu-Chu jelly, based off an old folk remedy. However, when the research topics started to turn military in purpose, I started to ask questions. I was told it was just for the defense of the city, and I bought that for a while. But one day I entered a lab and found the human experiments. A citizen had been kidnapped off the streets and was having some vile looking red gunk shoved down his throat. His transformation started immediately, and within moments he was what we now call a Goblin. But he was an early, rough model. He died within moments."

"Um." Link interrupted Bandam, looking at Aryll, who didn't seem bothered by the topic of discussion. "Should a child be hearing this stuff?"

A sad look came over Bandam's face as he looked at his daughter.

"I know everything about Papa." Aryll answered for herself. "And I understand what these people need to do." Link could tell by the way she spoke, she wasn't just a child acting like an adult. Link could tell that Aryll had ceased to be a mere child some time ago, and it worried her what might have happened to have caused that change.

"Right…"

"Back to my story." Bandam continued. "I of course realized several things immediately. My employer wasn't the saint I thought he was, and that the lives of me and my family were in danger. I made no attempt to stop or interfere with any immediate activities, for fear that it would draw attention to myself. I acted like business as usual as I made my way to my office and prepared to leave. By the time I got home, however, it was already too late. I saw my daughter running out of the house to me with men behind her, chasing her. I knew then that Fangor had somehow already deduced what I was going to do and had come to take my family hostage. I had no idea where my wife was, or what had happened to her, but I had an idea. I made a decision then to protect my daughter, no matter the costs. I grabbed her and ran, eventually being rescued by Mutoh and taken into his care. Aryll was still traumatized at the time, but I got her to tell me what happened. I learned that the men had come to kidnap her to use her as leverage to control me and my wife, but my wife, well… She was always a strong willed woman. She tried to fight them, and was killed. My daughter fled then, right into my arms."

As Link listened to Bandam listlessly tell his story, she felt a tightness in her chest. It was horrible that such a thing had happened. She looked at Aryll and saw the girl's sad eyes as she clutched her telescope.

"Mama told me to run." Aryll commented in a quiet voice. Bandam nodded.

"Yes, she wanted you to be safe." Bandam briefly patted Aryll on the head before continuing. "As for your earlier question as to why we have no mages at our disposal, which we seemed to have briefly forgotten. The answer is that Fangor has an experiment ongoing that has led to Fangor rounding up everyone in the city who has any form of Magical Talent or Magical Energy in their blood. The blood of our city's mages is being drained and used in experiments where Fangor compares their blood and his own. All beings implanted with Fangor's blood become those pig-like goblins, as you've seen, but other's people's blood has different and lighter effects. From what I understand from our inside source at the research facility, no other person's blood has had as much of a dynamic change on a subject as Fangor's blood, but there have been changes. Going with what we've heard from Don, this is likely because no one's blood has as much Power as Fangor's, considering he possesses the Tri-Force of said attribute. Notably, people with significant amounts of Magical Energy have caused minor change. A person named Layne was once considered the most promising mage of our town, having the largest store of magical energy and a moderate amount of natural talent. It seems that when her blood was used, the subject took on a few traits such as developing a few scales and non-functional gills. She also happened to have a penchant for Water Spells, which is believed to be related. When Fangor mixed his and her blood and administered it to a subject, a large fish-like monstrosity was created, apparently the result of Layne's 'attribute' combined with Fangor's raw 'power'. Fangor has done several such experiments mixing his blood with others to create a veritable zoo of monsters."

Link stared at the ground silently as she digested all the information that Bandam had said. Thoughts swirled around her head violently as many questions came to mind. She briefly glanced over at Don, who nodded at her as if to affirm to her that it was all true.

"I've snuck into the research lab when getting supplies for Bandam, I've seen a couple of the monsters myself."

"Why do you call them monsters? They were people once." Link said, slightly in protest. It was bugging her for some reason that they called the victims of Fangor's experiment 'Monsters'.

"We collectively call the results of these experiments 'Monsters' not out of any form of judgment, mind you." Anju spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to her. "They're called Monsters because the pain of transforming into those things and losing all physical semblance of humanity causes them all to go insane. It's rare that a person has the willpower to retain their sense of self once changed."

"Oh…" Link responded with more than a touch of sadness.

"After creating these relatively mindless creatures, Fangor usually places various binding enchantments on them to control them. He's shipped many of them to various places throughout Hyrule for some reason. All we know is that they're meant to guard important places." Don said, glancing at the map on the table. "The knives mark these important places. What's confusing is that, though we know he's moved the monsters, we've no idea how he did it without attracting any attention."

Link glanced at the map and saw knives sticking out of Lake Hylia, Hyrule Castle, Death Mountain, and a spot in the woods nearby. There wasn't any indication of what was there, however.

"What's that?" Link asked, pointing at the spot.

Don stepped over and glanced at where she pointed. "That's our first stop tomorrow. That's those ruins Fangor dug up and used to start spouting his Goddess Hylia nonsense. The reason it's not marked on the map as such is because Fangor goes to great lengths to make sure no one knows where it is. It's his proof of his religion but he doesn't allow normal people to see it."

"Then how do you know it's there?" Link asked, looking at Don and already expecting the answer.

"Been there. Nice place, very…ruin-y." Don said with a shrug and a grin.

"Of course. This entire city is on lock-down and you can pretty much stroll wherever you want, huh?"

"I may not have the strongest magic, but I'm specialized. I can sneak in anywhere."

"But you leave a calling card, hasn't Fangor tried to make defenses especially for you?"

"Yes, but he needs to know exactly how my spells work to do it. There are like five different ways a person can magic themselves to be invisible and making wards for all of them is expensive and hard. I actually know a sixth way that, as of yet, has not been discovered by other mage-thieves."

"Wow." Link said, somewhat impressed. "Lemme guess, trade secret?"

"Yeah, actually." Don nodded.

"Alright then, with all that out of the way," Anju interrupted, waving to get everyone's attention. She then addressed Link. "I'm sure you're wondering why we're sending you to Fangor's hidden ruins, right?"

"Uh…kind of? I was distracted by Don's apparent ability to go where he pleases."

"Right, well, these ruins are full of random junk relating to this Hylia. According to the last time Don checked the place out, a new spot had been uncovered that had a Tri-Force sign on it and the Hyrule's Crest. There was also a hieroglyph on it that looked a lot like you."

Link blinked a couple times in surprise at that last statement.

"Yeah, you. That is to say, an earlier incarnation of you. At this point, it's the earliest known incarnation of the 'Hero'. There's apparently a tomb of some kind for this hero that Fangor's trying to open. We think there are artifacts or something in the tomb that he wants. We want you and Don to sneak in there and take the artifacts before Fangor can get them."

Link was quiet for a moment before asking a somewhat obvious question. "Why hasn't Don just sneaked in and stolen the stuff himself?" She looked at Don with a curious expression.

"Because the door to the tomb won't open for me. I can pick most locks, but this one won't budge. Supposedly the key is hidden somewhere in the ruins, but I haven't found it yet. I'm not a fighter however, so I can't just search through the place at will. I have to be subtle. Or I get stabbed. You however, are the 'Hero'. ("Stop calling me that.") You can just fight your way through the place, pick up everything you need, and then open the door and take the treasure."

Link stared at Don incredulously.

"I'm serious. That's apparently the way the Hero works. All those stories about the various Heroes 'dungeon diving' were apparently legit."

"Dungeon diving…ugh…." Link shook her head. She felt like someone was trying really hard to mess with her, making her go through all this stereotypical fairy tale stuff. "I'm so tired…"

"We have a bed ready for you. You can rest up if you like." Anju said kindly, pointing to a door to the side.

"I'll show you where it is." Don said, motioning for Link to follow him. She nodded and started to follow before turning and addressing everyone.

"It was nice meeting all of you." All of the people she'd just met nodded at her and Aryll waved her telescope. "Thanks for rescuing me from Fangor."

She then followed Don through some doors and up some stairs. She briefly passed through an empty tavern area which caused her to pause. Don spoke before she could ask.

"Lanaryu's Beard, used to be the place to be every night. But after Fangor implemented the curfew, business has been dead as people spend their nights huddling in their homes, trying not to draw the ire of the bastard."

Link nodded. She was glad Don said what the name was, because she had forgotten it. "I thought Lanaryu was a province, not a person. What's up with the sign and the name?" She asked as she followed him up some more stairs towards where the beds for rent would be.

"It's part of the Hylian religion. Lanaryu was apparently a dragon-person-thing that served Hylia. When Fangor first started his religion and it was all popular and nice looking, Mutoh renamed his Tavern to show his support. He picked an important figure in the religion, Lanaryu, since he thought the art depicting him was cool."

"Ah." Link said simply as they came to her room. She quickly went in and slumped on the bed. She was out the moment she hit the pillow, and didn't hear what Don was going to say.

Seeing that Link was already out, Don shrugged. He was going to mention the clothes in the nearby closet for her to change into, but he supposed that could wait until tomorrow. He left the room, pausing only to give Link one more look before shutting the door.

* * *

Author's Commentary

Wow, sorry for the delay. My girlfriend finally kicked me in the butt enough times for me to finish this chapter. Feel free to encourage her to kick my ass more if you want more updates, apparently I need it. As you can tell, this chapter was mostly exposition, plenty of explanations of various doo-dads going on here and there, as well as introducing some knew people that may or may not be important later on. WELCOME TO LA RESISTANCE!


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